The taking and consideration of evidence clearly show that the trial is headed towards a conviction

Today the court heard one witness, a computer expert with the federal criminal police who had inter alia printed out the photos of Zschäpe’s, Böhnhardt’s and Mundlos’ summer vacation in 2004, contained on a CD-ROM found in the Frühlingsstraße apartment. These pictures, taken shortly after the nail bomb attack in the Keupstraße in Cologne, show a merry Zschäpe in harmony with the two men – refuting her claim that after the men had told her of the Cologne attack, there had been icy silence between her and them (see the report of 11 May 2016). The fact that the court takes such care to investigate technical details concerning these photos shows that it is planning to use them in its judgment – as an incriminating piece of evidence disproving Zschäpe’s statement in court.

The court also rejected several motions for evidence brought by the Wohlleben defense, all of which had aimed at casting doubt on the chain of custody of the murder weapon Ceska as contained in the indictment and confirmed by the evidence heard so far. The court based its decision on a very thorough consideration of the evidence, concluding that the statement by the first buyer – who had given it to his acquaintance Müller, from whom it had found its way to Thuringia and finally to Wohlleben and Schultze – are believable.

In both cases, the trial day today thus gives a foretaste of the final judgement – as before, everything points towards a conviction.

After the court had read out, following a motion by the Wohlleben defense, two documents containing “ethnopluralist” statements said to hail from Wohlleben, victims’ counsel moved that a self-portrayal of the “Thuringia Home Guard” from 2000 be read out. In that document, the “Home Guard” inter alia pledged its allegiance to “national Socialism” (in German: “nationaler Sozialismus”, a phrasing meant to clearly state one’s Nazi ideology without openly admitting that it is “Nationalsozialismus” one has in mind). They also declare the multicultural society to be “one of the biggest crimes committed against humanity”, “the systematic eradication of cultural identities and entire peoples which was to be “fought by all means necessary”. Other content contained on the “Home Guard” website, such as pictures in the style of showing para-military combat trainings, show what these means are meant to include.